Official Review

COIN by Vortex Magic and Eric Chien is an excellent DVD for intermediate to advanced coin handlers who want to learn Chien’s version of a retention vanish. The production quality of the 42 minute DVD is excellent with great camera work, appropriate angles and close-ups and in depth explanation.

Remember that old joke… One man lost in the street of New York City says to another on the street “Excuse me sir, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?” and the other man responds, “Practice, man, practice!” Well, if you want to be able to do Chien’s retention vanish and do it as beautifully as he does, you will need to practice, man, and practice a lot. Chien acknowledges that the move will require significant practice and recounts that he has a friend that has been practicing the move for months and is just getting it down. “Practice, practice, practice” are his exact instructions and without practice you will not be able to perform this very amazing move.

Chien is a coin master and he teaches the move from both performer and spectator point of view which is very helpful to learn and understand what he is doing. He focuses on the position of every finger and the teaching is supremely clear and clean. Some of the video is shot at slow speed so you can see what is happening during the lighting fast movement during the moment of the vanish.

Not only does Chien teach the basic move, but he also teaches various quick routines in which not only does a coin vanish, but it changes into a finger ring, a playing card, or a different coin altogether. He teaches a spellbound routine, a single coin routine and different handlings with and without shells.

If you are going to use this coin vanish, it is advised to use a coin the size of an American silver dollar, although he suggests, as a less preferable alternative, that you can do it with a U.S. Kennedy half dollar. I would go with the larger coin.

The move is angle sensitive so you do need the spectators to stand or sit directly in front of you (mostly) to avoid any flashing.

There are no issues that I see with the ad-copy or the promotional video and Chien is honest in disclosing the amount of practice it will take to master this very beautiful move. This should not be your first DVD on coin handling, but it certainly should be in your DVD library if you enjoy working with coins.

Eric Chien has been impressing top coin workers around the world with his performances of incredible sleight-of-hand magic. Some are saying he has created the best vanish in the world of a single coin.

He has spent years working and creating the most amazing visual magic using a single coin and is now ready to share it with other magicians. What looks like camera trickery can actually be performed without any gimmicks and only one coin.

COIN is the first time Eric has agreed to release any of his original handlings to the magic community and in this DVD he teaches his own incredible coin vanish as well as signature routines such as Dollar Coin to Signed Card and his handling on Coin To Cigarette which has fooled the best magicians in the world.

This DVD will also inspire you to take his work and combine it with other routines that you already perform.

INCLUDED ON THIS DVD: CHIEN VANISH - the most startling coin vanish that will change the way you perform BLINK - instant vanish of a coin - perhaps the quickest in the world COIN TO CARD - a signed card is lost in the deck and a coin instantly changes to card COIN TO CIGARETTE - coin visibly turns into a cigarette SPELLBOUND ADDITION - visual changes for any spellbound routine THROW CHANGE - visual turn a coin into a finger ring or coin 3-FLY ENDING - a visual ending for any 3 Fly routine COIN TO CARD BOX - a coin visually vanishes and appears inside a card box"By far the best retention ever created, a true work of art and mastery. This is how magic should look."- Michael Afshin